"Melanie Sands" wrote

Okay, so I've done a bit of googling and snooping in the posts in this
group to find out why.
There's much talk about "crap" and "poo" - but are you sure it's not
HEDGEHOGS that are doing the dirty?

We have an office/workshop surrounded by fields and allotment
gardens / community gardens.
Often, cats come by and especially in the winter when it's really
cold
(I live in Switzerland) I feed them, thinking (wrongly) that if they
don't
have a collar they must be wild/stray cats.

Come summer, many of the garden allotment folks also feed the cats
with barbeque sausages etc., but others poison them or, as one
gardener told me, he "presses their heads down into the soil until
they are kaputt".

Over the past 6 years, over 12 cats suddenly disappeared:
on this page there is a pixture of our "gazebo" on our parking lot,
where I
have potted plants, and the only animals who crap there are
said hedgehogs. The cats were always very tidy:
http://roundtablespage.tvheaven.com/photo.html

Latest disappearance victim is my own cat Büsli
who was not only sweet and affectionate and followed
me round like a dog, but was also an expert mouse-catcher -
very useful as we have food in ourfice/workshop:
http://roundtablespage.tvheaven.com/photo2.html

so I'm wondering - do gardeners WANT mice?

I just don't understand the fuss. If you like nature, surely
you like nature's creatures - especially such useful
ones and low-maintenance ones!


Firstly you have opened a can or worms. Personally myself I want cats in my
garden and certainly on my allotment, damn mice/voles have eaten a lot of
our potatoes this year because the houses round about our plot do not have
any cats. Our previous allotment had 27 cats quite close by at the Swan
Sanctuary and we never had any problem with mice/voles or pigeons. Got hit
by a swan on takeoff though.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK